are a disgrace. I've never seen such a negative performance. Even on 89 minutes, with a crossing opportunity, David Dunn walked the ball into the corner. If I'd paid to see that, I'd vow never to watch them play again. They had one shot in the entire game I think, and that was a speculative snap shot in itself. To take so much pleasure in the act of not trying to win is disgusting, and illustrates a wider malaise throughout English football whereby teams feel they cannot beat another team from their own division. It's no wonder the top 4 remains the same when a team that is actually still in European competition refuses to attack out of fear of defeat.

they defended brilliantly well, and as long as you do that you won't concede, but you will never win matches doing that.

Arsenal already beat them at Ewood Park this season, so playing purely for home advantage isn't necessarily effective. What was the real motive behind the way they played today? To take it to penalties?

But they will have a greater chance of winning at home with the home crowd behind them. Look at the Bolton game for a perfect example. Bolton set camp in their own half at the Emirates then played quite attacking in the replay.

The real malaise in football anyway is the amount of money in the game now and all the money at the top 4 clubs and sod all for the small clubs.

one hooked snapshot and an off-target long range attempt is all i can think of. Those aren't exactly chances.

Will they have a greater chance of winning? They'll have to play well to manage that, and judging from that performance they have no confidence in their strikers. I honestly think they were playing with penalties in mind today, let alone in the replay.

The top 4 clubs have the money because they finished in the top 4 in the first place. They did that by winning games, not playing for 0-0 away from home. Reading are currently in the top 8 on a meagre budget purely through teamwork and attacking football. Arsenal have been spending less than Spurs for a while now, etc. Money doesn't equal success in football, although it does help; what is crucial though is good management and teamwork and an ambition to do well.

I'm sorry but money has made football unbalanced these days. Reading did spend anyway to win the Championship.

Blackburn's players will have plenty of confidence as they had a job to do today and they've done it so it's job completed. More it will be Arsenal with the lack of confidence as they wern't able to score! In fact they didn't do a whole lot for 80 minutes.

and Reading have a lot of money by Championship standards, yes, but not by Premiership standards. To establish a football team, you do need years of sustained success, and not just money. Look at West Ham at the moment! There's no sense of teamwork there, and it's all going tits up. I'm not saying it's easy to succeed, but it is possible.

Surely it's Blackburn's job to win games? To settle for a draw as they did horrifies me as it is essentially an admission of inferiority. I wouldn't mind so much if they'd actually tried to nick a goal, but they didn't even do that. It's incredibly hard to score when you have 10 men in front of you, and Blackburn know that. Arsenal weren't brilliant today, but few teams would be up against a wall of defenders like that.

"Are you drawn to a manager who is such a football purist he condemns teams that pack the midfield and get everyone behind the ball in the hope of nicking a goal on the break, and has the tactical genius to get to the Champions League final by packing the midfield and getting everyone behind the ball in the hope of nicking a goal on the break?"

but they could have been a lot more positive, got more players forward occasionally. they managed to get behind the arse defence a few times (who looked a little shaky) but lacked support. and in the rest of the pitch the arse weren't on top of their game.

i was a little disappointed personally, but i'm a neutral and was hoping for some end-to-end stuff

it was between, right, two teams, bear with me on this, who are both in the premiership. Whether or not it is was actually played in the premiership does not actually count towards making it a game of premiership level football.